Admit your ignorance - things you've only just realised/learned

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Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
The way I learned it at school was Brackets, Order, Divide ... (Order meaning power, i.e. squared, cubed, etc).

Nowadays I have to teach it to my students as BIDMAS, same idea but now the I stands for Index, with the above meaning.

The only time this is ever possibly useful is stupid memes saying that gives you an ambiguous expression like to evaluate like 12+6÷2+4÷2 with lots of people wanging on about Bodmas in the comments.

It's not really maths, it's just convention. And no one ever uses the ÷ symbol anyway. If you understand the context of the calculation then you'll know what order to do things.
 

AndyRM

XOXO
Location
North Shields
I always assumed that people who said that they couldn't do/understand maths just hadn't had good teachers, but maybe there is some specific part of the brain that isn't quite working favourably.

I found working with numbers and words very easy. Working with people though, that has always been my weakness! :okay:

I have a formal diagnosis for dyscalculia, and I had great teachers throughout school. It was only when I couldn't get my head around a 3D modelling course at college that my tutor thought it might be a thing.

This was nearly 20 years ago, but I was asked to complete a series of numerical equations every couple of weeks for 3 months. Just numbers, nothing fancy.

At the end of this the doctor who had been testing me showed me my answers. Different every time, despite the same result being asked for in the same way every time.

When it was written in word form, I could get the answers perfectly.

It's a helluva thing, and can be really frustrating.
 

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
I have a formal diagnosis for dyscalculia, and I had great teachers throughout school. It was only when I couldn't get my head around a 3D modelling course at college that my tutor thought it might be a thing.

This was nearly 20 years ago, but I was asked to complete a series of numerical equations every couple of weeks for 3 months. Just numbers, nothing fancy.

At the end of this the doctor who had been testing me showed me my answers. Different every time, despite the same result being asked for in the same way every time.

When it was written in word form, I could get the answers perfectly.

It's a helluva thing, and can be really frustrating.

I could never get my head around 3D drawing. I was so frustrated because I really tried.
To compound things the teacher always spent time with those that could do it anyway. It was as though I wasnt worth the effort.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Mediocrity Manifest.
Location
Craggy Island
I always assumed that people who said that they couldn't do/understand maths just hadn't had good teachers,
When it came to maths, I was largely* written off and failed by teachers at school, yes, it was only later on at college that I really learned things, but it was also at college that I realised I potentially had a problem anyway.


* - Not by all, just most generally.
but maybe there is some specific part of the brain that isn't quite working favourably.
I do have brain damage, remember.
I found working with numbers and words very easy.
This is numbers, nothing to do with words!
I have always been reasonably ok with words (I was good at English in School) and I am good at remembering numbers and so on; I even had a hobby that required it, along with long streams of data.

No, it was just anything more than the usual day to day maths that shot me down.
Working with people though, that has always been my weakness! :okay:
Never, ever, work with people. Awful, awful things those!!
I have a formal diagnosis for dyscalculia
It hadn't really occurred to me until a few years back that I might have a problem, but then, I'd never heard of it until then. Yes, everyone knows about dyslexia, but dyscalculia?
This was nearly 20 years ago, but I was asked to complete a series of numerical equations every couple of weeks for 3 months. Just numbers, nothing fancy.

At the end of this the doctor who had been testing me showed me my answers. Different every time, despite the same result being asked for in the same way every time.
Now THAT I understand, I had to do these rather tedious sets of calculations all the time, often the same things as part of exercises at college to strengthen/impress on technique, etc, except that after a certain point of difficulty, very often, I'd end up with different and sometimes weird and wonderful answers that I couldn't even explain when the teacher pointed it out to me (I hadn't noticed). It was all a bit embarrassing and annoying.
When it was written in word form, I could get the answers perfectly.
Yes, words are no problem usually, just numbers.
It's a helluva thing, and can be really frustrating.
As I say, I can only get to a certain point before it seems to kick in and everything goes to pot.

Like I said earlier, I think I might have it. Maybe I should be tested.

Perhaps also why I appear to miss out words noticing.
 
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Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Photo Winner
Location
Inside my skull
I was edumacated in a 50s sec mod school so things have moved on.
I have just found out that in math calculations the is a rule called the order of operations.
The question was........what is 7+7÷7+7 to which I answered 9 as in.....
7+7=14 ÷7=2+7 = 9.
The order of ops says you you do the x or ÷ then the + or - which gives......
7÷7 = 1 then 7+1+7=15.
Its the order of bollox to me but my son apparently not.

Taught in primary school since the 1970s. But it is why brackets are used if there is potential for different interpretations 7 + ( 7 / 7 ) + 7. Same as those word puzzles which are open to interpretation.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Photo Winner
Location
Inside my skull
We used slide rules and books of log tables

The Casio fx-80 was one of the first mass used calculators at our school. Came out mid 1970s, but mostly seen from around 1979 at our school. I did however forget my calculator for my O level and A level maths exams. I was given a book of log tables to use. The log tables did not really slow down the speed of answering questions. Most of the time in exams is reading and understanding the question. Not the doing part.
 
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Location
Widnes
I was fine with Maths at school

actually did well at it and when we had exams I was generally one of the top in the year
which was noticed as I was in the bottom set overall!


but after 'O' levels I had a teacher and I just couldn't understand him
when I got something wrong and he explained it it just did not make sense
when I asked he just showed the board where he hod solved and and said "I've just shown you"
but I needed to know how he knew to go in that direction at the start and he never seemed to realise why I had problems


WHich screwed me up for 'A' levels


but at University I had to do "subsidiary Maths" and asked the lecturer the same thing and he just answered it in a way I understood
 

Mad Doug Biker

Mediocrity Manifest.
Location
Craggy Island
Well I just cannae do maths for toffee over a certain (relatively mediocre/intermediate) level.

Any other subject, yes, I was ok at and excelled at things like music, english* and languages**, but not maths! 🤦‍♂️


*, ** - Which I've probably become lazy with now.
 

Dogtrousers

Lefty tighty. Get it righty.
One of the hardest, or at least the most traumatic, exams I ever did was an "open book" maths exam. You could take text books and notes (and calculators, not that they would have been of any use) in with you. So it tested your understanding, not your memory. I think I may have failed that one. Or just scraped through.
 

Mad Doug Biker

Mediocrity Manifest.
Location
Craggy Island
but after 'O' levels I had a teacher and I just couldn't understand him
when I got something wrong and he explained it it just did not make sense
when I asked he just showed the board where he hod solved and and said "I've just shown you"
but I needed to know how he knew to go in that direction at the start and he never seemed to realise why I had problems
WHich screwed me up for 'A' levels
I had a teacher in 1st and 2nd year at the Academy who seemed to assume that everyone just 'knew' what to do and if you didn't, then tough.

Asking for help was a bit pointless too, he just wasn't interested (all he wanted to do was go play football with a group of other teachers or go to the pub with them), compounded by the fact that in my innocence, I didn't really know what to ask help for in the first place, but he must have known what I could and could not do, so he could have helped me progress, but didn't.

Then in 3rd and 4th, I ended up in a dead - end class and that was that.

Aye, thanks for nothing, your pub and football was more important than my future? 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
but at University I had to do "subsidiary Maths" and asked the lecturer the same thing and he just answered it in a way I understood
Yes I only really learned things after I left school. 🤷‍♂️🤦‍♂️
 
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AndyRM

XOXO
Location
North Shields
Reading this out loud is seriously boring.

PXL_20260811_091135848.jpg
 
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